Budget Magens Bay Strand

gran bahia, un tip: cundo llegues dirigite a tu izquierda, no hay gente y cuando mas te alejas mas te sientes en el paraiso, aguas espectaculares, snorkel asegurado, arena blanca hay mesas y baco gratuitos, hay guardavidas hay baños y un bar para unos tragos espectaculares alquilan lo que se te ocurra pero con tu toalla y tu mochila solamente puedes pasar un dia inolvidable en el paraiso

NOT what we wanted. We booked the beach transfer. We did NOT want the multi-stop shop and sight see option. So we choice this offering. Almost 2 hours of our excursion was spent going to different shops and outlooks. This is NOT the “straight to the beach” excursion that is advertised. Very disappointed. Once we got there, the beach was beautiful. Very crowded. But good bar service despite sooooo many other tourists.

So the description in TA doesn't really reflect what this activity includes. When i booked it said 1-6 people so i mistakenly thought i was hiring a car. the description also focuses exclusively on the beach. "Spend a day relaxing at the gorgeous beaches and warm, turquoise waters of Magen's Bay" So i thought we would have flexibility of having a private driver. ie some of our party could leave the beach early for shopping and others could spend the day at the beach. I was taken aback to discover its a shared "tour" of the island with a group open-aired taxi (think large golf cart). and before you get to the beach the driver takes you through the city and up the mountain for scenic photo op (nice) followed by a 30 minute stop at an enormous tourist shopping store home of the Banana Daiquiri LOL (they sell so many because they don't sell any other flavor). After two hours on the cart you get to the beach for a three hour stay (so not the entire day). forgot to mention that on the way to the beach you get the benefit of a running commentary from the driver through the worst speakers in the history of audio. Completely unintelligible but you learn to tune it out. In retrospect my three adult children who were with me all agreed that the open aired cart was actually preferable to a car because of the views and the breeze. As for the beach the views are absolutely stunning! essentially three sides of a square bordering the bay with green vegetation up the mountains. The sand itself is nice but nothing unique. and its not a deep beach. no more than 10-20 yards but it goes on for a mile. The parking lot where you get dropped off is at one end, where the sole bar/lunch counter is. so of course the beach is very crowed there but the further down you lug everything the further you need to go to get drinks and lunch. everything on the menu is basically $20 (food is chicken sandwiches burgers, chicken tenders etc. and comes with fries). Surprisingly despite the long lines the process is very efficient (what seems like a crazy long line for drinks turns out to be about 10 minutes and the food is even faster). we were there on a day that FIVE cruise ships were docked so the beach very much felt like a football stadium parking lot. We had snorkeling equipment and if you go out far enough there were some turtles but our day the water was not very clear so snorkeling wasn't really worth it. So was it worth it? I'd have to say yes. The beach was crazy busy, the sand was nothing unusual BUT the view and surrounding mountains is an experience you likely won't have a chance to have many times in your life. and three hours turned out to be just the right amount to get in the ocean a few times, have a cold drink and a burger and take dozens of photos. so if you manage your expectations this actually wasn't a bad tour. It just wasn't what was described on TA. and the "tour" aspect was better than a taxi to the beach in that we did get scenic vies and a chance to buy gifts for all the folks back home. so what started as a very annoying "tour" actually was quite a nice day.